Half Term? Now? Are you sure?

Wow.  I do feel tired enough for it to be half term next week but I hadn't actually thought that it would be.  Where did this half term go?  Carnegie I guess, various staff illnesses, closures, technology fails and any number of other things that have kept us on our toes.

This half term marks an important anniversary though.  I've been back at the school and in the library for a whole year!  This time last year I'd just got the job and was preparing to start the crossover period with our previous librarian, working with her until the summer when the crown* would be passed over to me, a crown which I wear with pride.  I can honestly say that it's been the best working year of my life and I've never been happier in a job than I am here.  The students are great, the staff are largely lovely, and the library is a gorgeous place to be.  Our two library assistants have been patient stars, merrily going along with daft plans and adjusting their own work when I've suddenly decided to put events on.

Sometimes I have to take a step back and realise what this job is.  I get to work with some wonderful people, in a lovely place where everything is focused towards something positive.  Our managers are lovely and happy for us to work relatively unrestricted, we're supported and encouraged to do new things.  There are battles to be fought of course, but they're not ones to hurt your head beyond the end of the day most of the time. I'm being paid to have fun setting up new things, encouraging students to read, talking about books.  Teaching students how to play card games and do a riffle shuffle properly is laughingly called work. So much of it feels like playing half the time.  I'm lucky.

We've done a whole lot over  the year:

• Placed fiction books in every tutor room under the 'Spread the Word' scheme that we stared in September.


• Hosted (and some won!) NaNoWriMo.


• Introduced a system of student librarians, with dozens applying to help out where previously no one wanted to.


• Stocked games for break and lunch times.


• Added hugely to the graphic novels available and altered their status within the school to that of 'proper books'.


• Adjusted proceedures and habits to make the library more accessible and welcoming.


• Hosted Book Week, with school wide events and readings at lunchtimes.


• Made small but significant alterations to the physical space, adding plants, beanbags, new signage.


• Adjusted our stock buying habits to ensure value for money


• Started the Reading Group on creating their own Wiki page to record their reviews and thoughts.  This'll be going school wide at the end of the year.


• Hosted KS4 and 5 Creative Writing Club.


• Started to offer staff INSET on research skills.


• Had a jolly nice time!  The library biscuit intake has gone through the roof, and I've gently encouraged the average consumption of one cup of tea a day to a more comfortable four or five, with the addition of Cecil the coffee machine making caffeine more accessible and tasty.

I know there was more too, but I can't quite remember it all!  Book swaps, competitions, lunchtime events. etc.  And next year there'll be even more.

Big huge thank yous to all of my student librarians and library helpers, and of course to Mrs S and Mrs C, who keep me in check and hide the sweets when I've had too many.  Ladies, you rock.

*I joked about the crown to some of the prospective new head teachers when they were touring round the school.  He didn't even smile.  I'm quite glad he didn't get the job - the one who laughed did.

Technology Fail

The servers hosting our library software, the rather impressive Eclipse.net, are having communication problems today, so we’re slowly issuing everything manually and writing down every user who takes out every book. It’s a rather time consuming process but at least it means we can keep the whole library functioning as usual. It’s also an excellent test of whether I know where each and every subject can be found; so far today I have found cars, dinosaurs, psychology and vast numbers of fiction books. This confirmation that I know the collection so well is very comforting, as I’ve been here less than a year and I’m having to resist feeling slightly smug. Oh, I’m allowed to feel smug? Well, that’s alright then.

The Year 11 students who abandoned us two weeks ago (*sob!*) have been making good use of the library as a study space, and they’re quickly picking up the habit of maintaining peace and quiet and using the whole range of resources available, which will be great practise for them when they’re in sixth form.  Hopefully by mid-September we’ll be chock a block with people studying all the time. A full library is a happy library!

The Carnegie Shadowing scheme is going really well, and we’ve been able to get through an awful lot of reading already. Two of our students are rattling through the books at quite an alarming pace, but their enthusiasm is completely infectious and the reading habit and buzz about books in Year 7 is almost entirely down to their personal marketing techniques! The reservation queue for The Knife of Never Letting Go is getting ridiculous. Our Shadowing Site is looking good, and as you can see, they’re all being superb about posting their reviews, and the early discussions about a possible winner are already getting quite heated. We also made a video of their favourites so far. CILIP have announced a competition for the best use of the Shadowing Site, and we’re hoping hoping hoping that we’ll be in the running, as the prize is a chance to take 12 students to the Carnegie Awards ceremony, which would be amazing...

Busy Busy Busy

Phew!  With the Carnegie shortlist reading well underway, saying goodbye to Year 12 and Year 11 as they go on study leave, preparing to wave farewell to Year 13 next week, it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind!  But I am determined to take a few minutes of quiet and calm to talk about Monsters of Men, part three of Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy.

Any discussion about this book usually begins with ‘ZOMG it’s sooo good, what about that bit where…. ARG! I can’t tell you, you haven’t read it yet!’ and there’s really no way to remedy this situation but to encourage everyone to read it.  As soon as possible.  I was worried when I first snatched it from the hands of the postman first received my copy (several days early – oh yes) that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations, that at some point over the course of the novel it would suddenly drop the tension and explain too much, or get too silly, or loose its confidence in presenting such complex characters.  I’m pleased to say that it didn’t at all.  I’ve never read a conclusion to a series that stayed so true to itself, that did all of its characters such justice or rattled along with such gripping pace.  At the same time, the writing was so stunningly suited, flawlessly absorbed into the narrative in such a way that I really couldn’t appreciate at the time just how good it is; I was too wrapped up and involved with the action to really take stock of just how darned good these books are.  There’s a lot more I’d like to day, but I won’t be able to put it as eloquently as Nymeth over at Things Mean A Lot, so scoot over there and read her review!

Having said goodbye to the upper years, the library seems strangely quiet – tumble weeds are blowing their way across the carpet…  Hopefully the rest of the school will fill in the gaps. I miss them all already!  *sob*